change

English Online Dictionary. What means change‎? What does change mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English changen, chaungen, from Old French changier, from Late Latin cambiāre, from Latin cambīre (“exchange, barter”), from Gaulish cambion, *kambyom (“change”), from Proto-Celtic *kambos (“twisted, crooked”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱambos, *(s)kambos (“crooked”).

Cognate with Italian cambiare, Portuguese cambiar, Romanian schimba, Sicilian canciari, Spanish cambiar. Used in English since the 13th century. Displaced native Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan (“to turn, change”) (whence English wend).

The noun is from Middle English change, chaunge, from Old French change, from the verb changier. See also exchange. Possibly related from the same source is Old English gombe.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: chānj, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -eɪndʒ

Verb

change (third-person singular simple present changes, present participle changing, simple past and past participle changed)

1. (intransitive) To become something different.

2. (transitive, ergative) To make something into something else.

3. (transitive) To replace.

4. (intransitive) To replace one's clothing.

5. (transitive) To replace the clothing of (the one wearing it).

6. (intransitive) To transfer to another vehicle (train, bus, etc.)
7. (archaic) To exchange.
   • 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):

     I would give any thing to change a word or two with this person.

8. (transitive) To change hand while riding (a horse).

Synonyms

• (to make something different): alter, modify, make another
• (to make something into something different): transform

Derived terms

Related terms

• exchange

Descendants

• → Cantonese: 唱 (coeng³)
• → Kashubian: czeńdżowac (Canada)

Translations

Noun

change (countable and uncountable, plural changes)

1. (countable, uncountable) The process of becoming different.

2. (uncountable) Small denominations of money given in exchange for a larger denomination.

3. (countable) A replacement.
5. (uncountable) Balance of money returned from the sum paid after deducting the price of a purchase.

6. (uncountable) An amount of cash, usually in the form of coins, but sometimes inclusive of paper money.

7. (countable) A transfer between vehicles.
8. (baseball) A change-up pitch.
9. (campanology) Any order in which a number of bells are struck, other than that of the diatonic scale.
10. (Scotland, dated) A public house; an alehouse.
    • 1727-1728, Edward Burt, Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland to his Friend in London

      They call an alehouse a change.

Synonyms

• (the process of becoming different): transition, transformation

Derived terms

Related terms

• (transfer): interchange
• exact change

Collocations

Translations

See also

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “change”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɑ̃ʒ/

Etymology 1

Deverbal from changer (corresponding to Old French change). Compare Medieval and Late Latin cambium.

Noun

change m (usually uncountable, plural changes)

1. exchange

   bureau de change ― currency exchange

   taux de change ― exchange rate

   agent de change ― foreign exchange dealer, foreign exchange broker

   lettre de change ― bill of exchange

Derived terms

• donner le change
• gagner au change
• perdre au change

Related terms

• échange

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

change

1. inflection of changer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “change”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

change

1. Alternative form of chaunge

Etymology 2

Verb

change

1. Alternative form of chaungen

Norman

Alternative forms

• chànge (Guernsey)

Etymology

Borrowed from French change and English change.

Noun

change m (plural changes)

1. (Jersey) change
2. (Jersey, money) exchange rate

Old French

Alternative forms

• cange (Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

Deverbal of changier.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃan.d͡ʒə/

Noun

change oblique singular, m (oblique plural changes, nominative singular changes, nominative plural change)

1. change (difference between one state and another)
2. exchange

Descendants

• French: change
• Middle English: chaunge, change, chaung, chawnge, cheaunge, chong, chonge
  • English: change
  • Scots: cheenge, chinge, cheynge